Cotton harvest starts in Sindh

KARACHI: Supplies from the new cotton harvest have started coming into the markets in Sindh in small quantities and are expected to gain pace in the coming weeks, traders said on Monday.
They said farmers have started harvesting early crop of cotton for new season 2015-16 in lower Sindh; and it will take another one-month to pick matured phutti (seed cotton) from farms in other part of the country.
“Two ginning factors {one each} in Sindh and Punjab have prepared 350 bales from the early crop,” said Naseem Usman, a broker at Karachi Cotton Exchange, adding picking for the crop was started a few days ago.
Nizami Cotton Factory sold 100 bales (of 155 kilogram each) of new crop at Rs5,600/maund (37.324 kilogram) to Service Textile Mills in Burewala, Punjab. “This is the first trade deal of the new arrivals,” Usman said. “Some 15 trucks, carrying around 3,000 maund phutti, are on the way to Punjab from Sindh’s farms.”
Traders said farmers at Punjab failed to sow early crop for the new season (April-September) due to late harvesting of winter wheat crop. Early crop in the province is usually sown in February and March.
The size of the early crop is estimated at 2,000 bales (of 155 kilogram each).
Traders said the size of early crop could have been over hundred of thousand bales if Punjab would have planted seeds for the early crop.
The first trade-deal in the early crop took place in late working hours on Monday. Except this, no other deal could take place during the day due to pricing issue, Usman said.
“(Majority of) textile mill-owners are not ready to pay the price which ginners are demanding for,” he added.
He said the new phutti is being sold at Rs2,500 to Rs2,800/40kg in both the provinces. “The opening rate for the new season’s crop is much lower than the last season’s opening price of Rs3,200 to Rs3,300/40kg,” Usman said.
However, price of the phutti during last season-end (in March) was recorded at Rs1,800 to Rs2,800/40kg. The variation in the price was depending upon quality of the phutti, he said.
The market is likely to remain lackluster till matured crop arrives in the second or third week of July. “Also, trade activities may remain sluggish in the fasting month of Ramazan, which is expected to start from Thursday or Friday ,” Usman said.
The country is having a carryover stock of 170,000 bales from last season. The government has set a target of 15 million bales (of 170 kilogram each) from an area of 3.1 million hectares (approximately 7.6 million acres). It is similar to the last year’s target. However, the production was short of around 1.5 million bales in the last year.